Kittens found in Regina dealership recycling bin

If cats really do have nine lives then a litter of kittens in Regina get to reuse one after being found in a recycling bin at a car dealership this week.

Lance Hextall, an employee at Mercedes-Benz in Regina, was working at the dealership’s back lot on Monday when he heard meowing.

“I ended up diving right in the recycling bin because that’s where all the meowing was coming from and way at the bottom, underneath layers and layers of cardboard, there was a bunch of black fluff so I found five kittens,” Hextall said.

“At first I only found four and then I heard one more meow and yeah, lo and behold, underneath the lower cardboard at the very bottom of the bin, there was one guy left.”

Hextall believes they were either born in the bin or moved there by their mother. He believes – and hopes – they weren’t abandoned in the bin by someone looking to get rid of some unwanted kittens because the bin is in a fenced in part of the dealership’s lot.

“Only people who work at Mercedes have access to it,” he explained.

Hextall estimates the kittens were only a couple weeks old or so. Their mother couldn’t be found so the kittens are now residing in the care of the dealership’s finance department. Regina Cat Rescue is helping them nurse the kittens back to good health.

“Everyone enjoys seeing them at Mercedes up in the office,” Hextall said. “It brightens everyone’s day up a little bit.”

The kittens won’t go up for adoption until they are three months old and have been sterilized and nursed back to health. They won’t be returned to their mother because she is a feral cat and there is the worry she will move the kittens to another unsafe location.

“It’s great that we got them out in time before the recycling truck came they got shipped off. I’m just glad I could save them from that,” Hextall said. “Hopefully they’ll be going to fantastic, loving homes here within the next month or so.”

And of course, one kitten has been named Mercedes and another one has been named Benz.